Randomness for 4/11

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1) Want Star Trek gear? A warehouse full of ST: The Experience props and costumes is up for auction.

2) Nicolas Cage’s Ugly Mansion. Eight pictures, each worse than the last. No, actually number four is the worst. This living room is a disaster, though.

3) These aren’t new, but maybe some folks haven’t seen them before: Recut move trailers that make kids movies seem like horror films, and horror films seem like domestic dramas. SCARY MARY is my favorite.

4) Businessinsider.com offers 15 charts about wealth and income inequality in America. Some of the charts have small text, but there’s a link beneath that’ll take you to a larger version. Also: Wow. via Ezra Klein.

5) One unfortunate way to express displeasure over medical advice.

6) “Who put these unpeeled grapes in my fruit bowl!” In which John Scalzi lives a blessed life–one he’s totally earned–and that’s a beautiful thing.

7) How to cook amazing mashed potatoes.

See you at the bookstore

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Last reminder: I’ll be at the Tukwila B&N today at one o’clock with three other fine writers. I hope to see you there.

Don’t miss this one

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Andrew Wheeler went through Publishers Weekly’s list of best-selling books from 2009 and took out everything that wasn’t sf/f. The list of most popular sf/f books is here.

I don’t have a lot to say about the content of the books. You have to go pretty far down the list before you find science fiction. Fantasy and Horror dominate.

Another thing I notice at first glance is that there aren’t that many writers listed once on the list. Most of the slots are books from authors with at least one (usually more) other slot on the list. In Donald Maas’s The Career Novelist (there’s a free pdf of the book at the end of that link, btw) the agent took a look at which of his writers were earning six figures every year, and what they had in common.

He said the authors earning those big bucks weren’t getting it in advances. Most of it was coming from backlist sales, and they had to write about ten books before they reached that point. Interesting stuff.

And no, my book is not on the list. Yeah, I checked.

Randomness for 4/9

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1) Which is nerdier: Dr. Who or the X-Men? From the Extremely Bad Advice column.

2) Barack Obama looking at awesome things. via @Scalzi

3) Tricks for better Google searches.

4) Lawrence Watt-Evans tells how he became a published author without contacts, classes, networking, or family support.

5) How MMORPG designers keep you playing, even when you’re not having fun. More about this later, I think. via Kate Nepvue

6) An instance of Nerd Rage examined. –although this isn’t relegated to nerds (“geeks” whatever you want to call them). The Kindlegarteners dropping one-star reviews on Amazon.com because they can’t buy a Kindle edition in Australia, or because they think the price point is too high are no different than these bitterly angry LOTR fans.

7) 11 Tips for bookselling success at brick-and-mortar stores.

This is amazing (video: PIXELS)

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Post edited: This video has been deleted

What happened to the day?

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Having gotten in way past bedtime last night (I didn’t get to sleep until almost 1 am) I naturally overslept this morning. By an hour and a half.

Now I keep finding myself looking down at the clock on my computer and thinking “break time already?” “How can it be lunch when I haven’t been uncomfortably hungry for the last 20 minutes?” In fact, I clock out in half an hour. Huh!

More Jim Butcher news. You know he cut off his long hair, right? It’s a big improvement, but I couldn’t find any pictures on flickr. Yet.

Now that his Codex Alera series is done, he’s planning to start a new project with a co-author–set in a world where the plucky band of heroes quested to overthrow a Dark Lord and failed.

Apparently, he pretty much planned out all 20 Dresden Files books when he wrote the first one. I can’t imagine doing that, or even wanting to do that.

Okay, back to me. I spent part of this morning going over the first chapter of Man Bites World for Betsy. Yeah, Game of Cages is going to have another teaser chapter in the back, and wow, I will never get over the fact that, no matter how vigorously I revise, I always miss the most bone-headed errors you can imagine. Jeez, but being edited is a humbling experience.

And now it’s snowing outside. WTH, day?

Bookstore appearance reminder

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This is just a reminder that I’ll be appearing at the Tukwila Barnes and Noble. 1:00 on Saturday, April 10th with authors Mark Henry (Battle of the Network Zombies), Gayle Ann Williams (Tsunami Blue), and Jessa Slade (Seducing the Shadows). We’ll be hanging out, chatting, and generally being an extrovert. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hello.

I shoulda shaved

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Jim Butcher’s event drew about 400 people. Yikes. I counted 32 black leather jackets, 21 fedoras/wide-brimmed hats, and only two guys who went for the trifecta: leather jacket, hat and “wizard’s staff”.

With my unshaved face and fat gut, I imagine I didn’t look out of place. I really felt out of place, though.

There was no reading; it was all Q&A, and what’s more, Butcher is a funny, engaging speaker. Even when a reader (the very first one!) came to the mike to ask him about his inaccurate research on gun laws, he was gracious and funny.

After an hour of that, it was time to queue up for signing. I waited an hour and a half to get his latest book signed and more importantly, to thank him for writing a blurb for Child of Fire. He was very kind about my work, and inscribed “One hell of a writer” in my copy of Changes.

But I should have shaved.

Randomness for 4/7

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1) The NYTimes (attempts to) compare the environmental impact of paper and electronic books.

2) Scrabble to allow proper nouns. Is this worse than the Designated Hitter rule? Save us Will Shorts!

3) How to write a stupid book review. “Once upon a time in a world far, far away, publishing was run by editors.” Also, it’s amazing how many people heap shit on urban fantasy because it’s perceived to be about women. I say this as an author who is uncomfortable when people praise my work as if it’s an antidote to UF about women and their sex lives.

4) Beautiful photos of the circus, circa 1910.

5) Picturesque old postcards with added alien invasion.

6) Spawn, GI Joe, Optimus Prime, and other figures done in Lego.

7) Forty-five My Little Pony mods.

8 Things about me

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1) I’m going to the Jim Butcher reading tonight on the UW Campus.

2) I forgot to shave or pretty myself up. Oops. Can’t take the fat unshaved guy anywhere.

3) I finished the rough of my Project Number Next proposal yesterday, but the polish is going to take a while.

4) I need to read this at some point when I have time.

5) Having turned in Man Bites World over the weekend, I’ve actually played a couple of computer games. Imagine!

6) Playing Call of Duty 2 on “Easy” is like going to war as Private Wolverine. There’s a lot of “Hey! Who’s shooting me in the back!”

7) Regarding point 2) I could have picked up a razor at the drug store and shaved in the bathroom at work, but fuck it. I’m tired.

8. I’m so forgetful I forgot what number 8 was supposed to be. Oh yeah. I got a raise at the day job. Extra Kit-Kat bar a month! Whoo-hoo!